Audio visual performance

Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai Signature Pavilion “null²” - 映像作家: wow-inc
3DCGAIAudio visual performanceEventExperienceInstallationInteractive

Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai Signature Pavilion “null²”

2025
00:01:45
WOW participated in the signature pavilion “null²” at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai as part of the creator team, contributing to the planning, visuals, sound, and overall direction system. The pavilion’s theme is “Polishing Life.” WOW joined as a direction member from the earliest planning stages and, together with Expo producer Yoichi Ochiai, spent several years creating a wide range of creative elements, from the pavilion’s interior visuals, sound, robot control, and experiential flow to the exterior visuals. A Pulsating Sculpture, a Conversational Space For this pavilion, Ochiai established “two mirrors” as a key concept. The first refers to the sculpture itself, which generates unfamiliar landscapes. Its mirror-finished exterior absorbs the surrounding scenery, pulsating as it repeatedly transforms like a living organism, even as a building. The second refers to the experience inside the pavilion. In a space where mirrors and imagery are integrated, visitors confront “kigō*” and engage in dialogue with a digital human. WOW was primarily responsible for this interior experience. The space confronting “kigō” is a cube measuring 8 meters in width, depth, and height, with mirrored surfaces on all sides. Projection systems on the ceiling, floor, and walls, together with a vertical video object called the “Monolith” standing at the center, work in response to one another to depict “kigō,” creating endless reflections. In addition, the cube-shaped mirrored “goshintai,” which symbolizes the space, moves freely overhead, shifting perspectives and stirring the visitor’s mind and thoughts. Using mirrors as a medium, the experience moves back and forth between meaning and matter, self and other, reality and virtuality, encouraging visitors to reconsider and reinterpret what life is and offering a prompt to “polish life.” *Elements that constitute a person’s individuality, such as their name, hobbies, preferences, voice, and appearance Two Types of Experiences, Two Different Perspectives The experience is offered in two modes: “Dialogue Mode” and “Installation Mode.” Dialogue Mode centers on the world of “computational nature,” as proposed by Ochiai, and the story connected to it, allowing visitors to let go of their “kigō” through verbal communication. In Installation Mode, visitors view simple patterned visuals, along with the Monolith and goshintai moving throughout the space, from the outer corridor, creating a non-verbal experience that lets them intuitively sense the structures at the essence of life. In both experiences, the story, visuals, sound, goshintai, and Monolith are all intricately linked, so WOW worked closely with Ochiai to craft a precise direction. Direction Where Technology and Expression Merge On the technical side, to create a more three-dimensional and densely layered experience, WOW integrated a wide range of direction elements, including AI-generated real-time video, display of 3D Gaussian splatting, sound generation, image effects, as well as the display and speech of MirroredBodies created by visitors in a dedicated app, and robot control for the goshintai and Monolith. In collaboration with various companies, WOW developed the main system that aggregates and controls these elements. In addition, the carefully designed sound direction, which makes use of characteristics across different frequency ranges, contributed to a unique auditory experience. Logo Design and Design Guidelines That Create Organic Expression WOW also handled the logo design for null². For the dynamic logo, multiple fonts were used to create a design that transforms into various forms. The static logo was refined from the dynamic logo as the official version. In both cases, the aim was to maintain a certain degree of legibility while pursuing a fluid, life-like design tone through verification and rule setting. In this project, the participating teams, including WOW, brought together all of their technical capabilities and creativity to create the work “null²,” something that could only have been realized at the Expo.
Osaka-Kansai Expo 2025 “BLUE OCEAN DOME” - 映像作家: wow-inc
3DCGAudio visual performanceEventExperienceInstallation

Osaka-Kansai Expo 2025 “BLUE OCEAN DOME”

2025
00:00:53
WOW participated in the BLUE OCEAN DOME at Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai. At this pavilion, where visitors can learn about the sustainable use of marine resources and the protection of marine ecosystems, WOW was responsible for the direction and production of the video content. BLUE OCEAN DOME consists of three spaces under the theme of “the revival of the ocean.” It includes an installation expressing the spectrum of water, a video installation depicting the miracles and crises of Earth as the planet of water, and a space that presents a path toward restoring the ocean through documentary footage. WOW developed a hemispherical LED visual device about 10 meters in diameter together with Azlab. Through this one-of-a-kind, ultra-high-definition giant hemispherical LED screen, it brought Earth as seen from space to life. —The beautiful Earth, a miraculous water planet, is on the verge of being gravely damaged by human activity. This work depicts the ocean, where the brilliance of the chain of life and pollution progress simultaneously, across a range of scales from a vast view like looking at Earth from space to the cellular level. By fusing realistic depictions so true to life they could be mistaken for the real thing with dreamlike imagination, the piece sought to create an audiovisual experience as a “device for transforming consciousness” that appeals to the senses of visitors. The footage, supervised after fieldwork in biologically diverse marine areas and by the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, vividly portrays everything from vibrant life to the realities of marine pollution through the meticulously crafted 3DCG for which WOW is known. In addition, Hatis Noit’s voice, resonating as if with the voices of all beings living in the sea, gave the imagery multidimensional depth. The hemispherical screen, covered by a parabolic cover, was precisely designed down to the number and arrangement of its supports, realizing two distortion-free curved surfaces. For the parabolic cover serving as the backdrop for the LED screen, a special paint that appears darker than black by absorbing light was used. A smooth base finish achieved through plasterwork and painstaking hand-applied painting created a jet-black screening space. The hemispherical screen itself was fabricated by hand, one small panel at a time. This ultra-high-definition display, with approximately 160,000 LED chips arranged at a 2.5 mm pitch, supported the overwhelming visual experience.
"Light’s Ancient Strata" Old Rice Warehouse Installation #Hino Town, Tottori Prefecture - 映像作家: overlay
Art workAudio visual performanceInstallation

"Light’s Ancient Strata" Old Rice Warehouse Installation #Hino Town, Tottori Prefecture

2025
00:05:43
This work, presented on August 13, 2025 at the “Neo Lantern Festival” held in Hino Town, Hino District, Tottori Prefecture, simultaneously unfolded a visual presentation and an illumination design that enveloped the entire space. Set in an old warehouse once used for storing rice, it repurposed a dormant space and transformed it into a place that connects local memory with the future. The illumination is not merely decorative; it is an essential element that shapes the rhythm of the space in response to the imagery. Light placed along the walls and beams overlaps with the abstract layers of the video, spreading outward as if embracing the audience’s bodily sense. In a space where the festival’s defining “light” and the installation’s illumination coexist, the traditional light of the festival and the light of contemporary digital art intersected. The theme of the work is “reconstructing the landscape.” It captures fragments of nature and daily life from the Hino District (Hino Town, Kofu Town, and Nichinan Town), then reassembles them into abstract designs. The video evokes memories of the landscape, while the illumination serves to extend those memories throughout the entire space. Viewers can experience the moment when the familiar appearance of the land is transformed by light and imagery, discovering another kind of beauty hidden within the region’s scenery. Underlying the work is a desire to reuse local resources and foster cultural regeneration. By reviving an unused rice warehouse as an art venue, it became an attempt to create new value that honors memories of the past while opening toward the future. The closed-off space of the warehouse was opened up, creating a place where local people could share an experience of being surrounded by light. This installation functions as a mediator that connects land, people, and memory through the unity of video, illumination, and the local community.
monoton – Mirrored (Live at Flow vol.8) - 映像作家: monoton
3DCGAudio visual performanceCodingEventGenerative ArtPerformanceReal-time Graphics

monoton – Mirrored (Live at Flow vol.8)

2025
00:29:18
This is a recording of a solo live performance given at the audiovisual event “Flow vol.8” (2025), held at Ritsumeikan University’s Osaka Ibaraki Campus. All of the sound and visuals were performed live in real time by a single person. A 300-inch LED screen was installed in the venue, and the glass windows beside it reflected the screen like a mirror at night. To make use of this environment in the performance, the visuals were designed to move back and forth between the physical screen and its reflected image. Specifically, the visuals were rendered on a canvas equivalent to two screens wide, then folded back and overlaid before being displayed on the screen, allowing the image to move from the screen to the glass and back again. The audience experiences the boundary between the actual screen and the virtual image dissolving, with the visuals freely circulating between the two. The title “Mirrored” comes from this reflective structure. In addition, since the brightness of the 300-inch LED screen itself functions as the venue lighting, the overall light and darkness of the space, as well as the pacing of the performance, were designed through the use of flashes and control of the screen’s overall brightness. The music and visuals are synchronized via OSC, and all images are rendered and controlled in real time. The sound is spatially arranged through 4-channel surround output, and together with the reflected visuals, the performance is designed to envelop the audience through both sight and sound. It is a one-of-a-kind performance inspired by the specific conditions of the venue, and possible only in that place.
Soul/Soil by Ricoh: Soul Bubble - 映像作家: YusukeMurakami
AIAudio visual performanceCodingDataEventExperienceGenerative ArtInstallationInteractiveMain VisualMotion graphicsReal-time Graphics

Soul/Soil by Ricoh: Soul Bubble

2025
00:01:31
SOUL BUBBLE is an immersive art installation that visualises an individual’s mental and physical state. Inside a space surrounded by eleven screens, visitors sit on a single-seat sofa equipped with AI and sensors. The sofa reads changes in posture and centre of gravity, heart rate, breathing, and hand movements, visualising these signals in real time. States of mind and body such as relaxation, focus, tension, anxiety, excitement, meditation, and confusion are analysed and transformed into microbial-like patterns that spread throughout the entire space. At the end of the experience, the participant’s own behavioural data is projected onto the screens, stored, and used to advance the AI system. As more participants join, individual and collective data accumulate, revealing differences, distributions, and new tendencies. This ongoing process continually evolves the installation, forming an endless archive that keeps recording human states. Interestingly, many visitors were highly interested in their own results and came expecting to find a pattern of “high relaxation.” SOUL BUBBLE gently envelops the body like a bubble, while also presenting itself as a prototype for future sensing devices, where technology stays close to the body, responds to the soul, and brings to light the hidden layers beneath mind and existence.
Expo 2025: Wakayama One Hundred Views — “Blending, Connecting.” - 映像作家: YusukeMurakami
Audio visual performanceCodingEventExperienceGenerative ArtInstallation

Expo 2025: Wakayama One Hundred Views — “Blending, Connecting.”

2025
00:01:00
Description: Set against Wakayama’s profound history and magnificent natural scenery, this 30-minute audiovisual installation explores the theme of “mixing and binding” — the fusion of different religions and genres, as seen in shinbutsu-shūgō. It offers a visual and musical experience projected onto eight totems, each 4 meters high, evoking the towering ancient trees of Kishu, and reflects Wakayama’s “spirit of tolerance” found in places such as Koyasan, the Kumano Sanzan, and in the thought of Minakata Kumagusu. Drawing inspiration from the Kumano pilgrimage, the work portrays Wakayama’s character — its acceptance and coexistence beyond differences in religion, social status, nationality, and ideology — as a journey through future, past, present, and once again into the future. This journey is an experience of “rebirth,” a space where Japanese tradition and digital expression, the real and the virtual, the West and the East intersect, reflecting the spirit of shinbutsu-shūgō.
There, Minakata Kumagusu’s belief that “truth lies in between the two” comes alive. Drawing inspiration from the Kumano pilgrimage, the work portrays Wakayama’s character — its acceptance and coexistence beyond differences in religion, social status, nationality, and ideology — as a “journey of rebirth” through future, past, present, and once again into the future. Symbolic order of the Kumano pilgrimage and its blessings Kumano Hongu Taisha — Future Kumano Hayatama Taisha — Past Kumano Nachi Taisha — Present Kumano Hongu Taisha (Return) — Future / Rebirth The video installation is composed of these four parts. 01. FUTURE The opening moment where anticipation and spirituality intersect.
Through flickering light, pulses, and shifting colors, it depicts a world on the verge of creation. 02. PAST A journey into the origins of Wakayama.
Tracing the land’s deep memories through historical elements such as volcanic activity, nature, and mandala scrolls. 03. PRESENT A chapter that moves through the diverse landscapes that could be called the hundred views of Wakayama.
It captures the culture, daily life, and beauty alive in modern Wakayama. 04. FUTURE / RESURRECTION A dreamlike finale centered on the theme of “rebirth” leading into the future, using reverse-playback imagery.
As a symbol that transcends the boundaries of religion, gender, and nationality, totems appear and visually embody the “spirit of tolerance.” About the event movie The five great elements of esoteric Buddhism at Koyasan — fire, water, wind, void, and earth — are translated into visual expression,
making visible the flow by which they merge to form the universe.
It conveys the spiritual depth of Wakayama in a visual and sensory way. What does “Mixing, Binding.” mean? The word “musu,” found in Takamimusubi-no-Kami and Kamimusubi-no-Kami, two of the three creator deities in Japanese mythology,
means “to give birth” or “to produce,” and represents the power to generate new life and relationships.
As seen in words such as musuko and musume,
“musu” has long been a core concept in Japanese, meaning “generation” and “bonding.” Shimenawa and shide, seen at shrines and sacred sites, are symbols of “binding” that sanctify space and invite the gods. We chose this “musu (Musubu)” as the theme of this work because it is a word that symbolizes the spirit of Wakayama, which has passed down Japan’s oldest culture to the present day.

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